pariswat

Hello Peter
I had not seen you here yet, and since I'm not on TA anymore, I was missing you !
Mvg

isabel

I'm no expert as I've only been to the Camargue once, a day trip from a base in St Remy. Certainly would not be my choice for somewhere to bike around. Flat, marshy and really pretty big. Now I just drove to Aigues Mortes, so didn't get to a lot of the area but the drive from Arles to Aigues Mortes was quite boring, probably the most boring of my entire two week trip to Provence. If you google images for the Camargue all you get is shots of white horses and bulls and flamingos and we didn't see ANY of those. Aigues Mortes is no where near as 'touristy' as Carcassone, but it isn't as interesting architecturally either.

I went to look in my photo gallery to give you a link to some photos of what I saw in the Camargue but apparently I didn't bother to even post any, they were so boring. There's a few of Aigues Mortes at the end of the gallery. (http://www.pbase.com/annforcier/france_-_provence)

Here's what I wrote in my trip report about Aigues Mortes (BTW, I LOVED the rest of Provence, have been to parts of it three times and will be going back, just not to the Camargue)

"AIGUES MORTES is a walled Medieval town sitting on the flat marshes of the Camargue, and is considered a pure example of 13th-century military architecture. The town of neatly rectilinear streets is surrounded by a crenelated wall with 5 towers and 10 fortified portes. It was originally a port but access to the sea has long since silted up. I’ve seen photos of the impressive walls reflected in water, but on closer inspection I think that was a big puddle. There is a canal along one side.

Aigues Mortes is larger than the guide books make it sound. It has an “ok” main square and lots of streets – all dead straight and 90 degree angles to one another, flat and a bit shabby. It was seriously crowded, with several tour buses. Rick Steves says “Antiques Mortes means dead waters and it should stay that way”. I wouldn’t go that far but it was not exactly a highlight of our time in Provence either. They did have a very god ice cream shop with lavender, rose, lilac, etc. ice cream. I got a great flavor that I think was called Rochecocco, that I have not seen anywhere else. We were pretty much done with the place in an hour, didn’t bother paying to walk the walls as the view didn’t seem like it would be that great either into the town or out."

You asked if it was similar to the everglades, while I can't answer that, I have done lots of biking around a coastal area with wild ponies on Chincoteague Island in Virginia, and the Camargue is way more boring than that.

julies

Isabel--

Thanks so much for the extensive post. This does not sound like a very pretty picture or something that would really call to us.

kerouac

And I had the opposite experience and loved walking the walls.

PeterHorrocks

Hi to pariswat

Good to see you on here too.

I hope I'm not putting people off the Camargue too much. I've seen plenty of beautiful sights there of pink flamingos, bulls and white horses as well as interesting churches. One of the other big plusses are the beaches which are fantastic around Port Camargue area. I also enjoyed the restaurants in and around Grau du Roi, bit of gipsy/Spanish feel to them often with Spanish guitar players singing folk songs, I remember the aioli nearly blew my socks off..., good value food too. We had a many good evenings out there. Hemingway liked it and I can see why he would.

As for the cycling its fine if you want flat, flat, flat...and put plenty of mossie killer on.

Best

Peter

cigalechanta

The Chassagnette is a wonderful restaurant in the Camargue. I second what Peter wrote.